The Wings Museum is an aviation museum located in Sussex, United Kingdom. It is housed in a hangar-like former farm building in Brantridge Lane, between Handcross and Balcombe. The museum displays mainly World War II-related flying memorabilia and equipment which have been donated,"War hero’s memorabilia donated to Wings Museum in Balcombe". 26 April 2014 or which have been recovered and restored by volunteers."More Details Emerge About Wartime Military Aircraft Crash". The Guilford Dragon.
History The museum was originally located at Redhill Aerodrome."Wartime bomb discovered at Woodhatch pub to be displayed in museum". Surrey Mirror April 17, 2016 By 2011 it had relocated to Brantridge Lane.
In 2013, the museum hosted a fundraiser for the upkeep of the Bomber Command Memorial in nearby Green Park."VIDEO: Bomber Command veterans raise hundreds for Green Park memorial". Mid Sussex Times, 10 April 2013."Wings reunion for Bomber Boys". ITV News, 9 April 2013
In 2015, volunteers restored a Bristol Beaufighter Mk1f which had crashed 75 years earlier."Nostalgia: Remembering Second World War fighter pilots killed in crash". Surrey Mirror, November 01, 2015.
Aircraft collection Visitors to the museum can walk inside a complete fuselage from a Douglas C-47 Dakota which was used on D-Day and later during the filming of the television series Band of Brothers."Tyre from a wartime bomber surfaces after 74 watery years". Mid Sussex Times, 8 March 2014
There are some very rare aircraft from World War II and some of them are the only ones of their type in the UK.
Turbine engine aircraft Hawker Siddeley Kestrel XS694 (under restoration and parts in storage)
Piston engine aircraft North American B-25J-25-NC 44-30861 (under restoration) Bell P-63 King cobra - 43-11137 (under restoration);"The Wings Museum’s Bell P-63C Kingcobra Restoration", Warbirds News, November 1, 2013 the museum has five more in storage Douglas A-20 Boston (displayed as found) Nakajima B5N2 Kate (very large fuselage and wing section) Douglas C-47 Dakota (fuselage from Band of Brothers) Hawker Hurricane (wreck) Handley Page Hampden TB.1 P1273 (wreck)
Aircraft cockpits Douglas A-26 Invader 43–22649 Bristol Beaufighter 1f"BRISTOL BEAUFIGHTER NEWS". AirSoc, 31 Aug 2015 Curtis Helldiver SB2C-5 (in storage) Jet Provost XM486 (in storage) English Electric Canberra (in storage) De Havilland Chipmunk WD377 North American B-25 Mitchell
Simulators Link trainer
Piston engines Rolls-Royce Merlin ×5 (one running as a living memorial) Junkers Jumo 211 Daimler Benz 610
See also List of aerospace museums
References
External links
Official website of the Wings Museum